Symthaea

Experimental cognitive architecture for testing verifiable state transitions, representation mechanisms, and consciousness-relevant computational indicators — paired with a zero-knowledge proof stack for privacy-preserving attestation.

Symthaea combines hyperdimensional computing (HDC), closed-form liquid neural dynamics (CfC), consciousness-relevant measurement (IIT-inspired Φ, Butlin-indicator probes), and zero-knowledge proofs. It does not claim to prove consciousness, and nothing below is a regulatory compliance certification. What it does have: working ZK circuits over HDC's binary-field structure, measured against a prime-field baseline, and an internal research program that documents its own retractions — see the Evidence table below before trusting any specific number.

Live Demo | Paper | Benchmarks | Honest Status

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Evidence Table

None of this is a claim of general intelligence, sentience, or legal/medical/financial compliance. Where a component is a real, working, reproducible cryptographic or engineering result, we say so and show the command. Where a result was wrong, we say that too, in place, rather than deleting the history.

What The ZKP Stack Demonstrates

• Healthcare attestation primitive — Prove "patient vitals are in normal range" in ~34ms without revealing the actual values, via a ZK range proof. (health-zkp)
• Anonymous eligibility proof — Prove "I'm eligible to vote" without revealing identity, with post-quantum Dilithium5 signatures. (governance)
• Selective credential disclosure — Prove "age >= 18" via ZKP without revealing date of birth or nationality. (eidas-shaped demo)
• Verified federated learning — 16 participants submit encrypted gradients; aggregation proven correct in ~91ms. (triple-stack)
• Verifiable search — Prove search results were ranked per a stated formula, not manipulated. (prism-zkp)
• Cognitive-loop state-transition proof — Prove a specific internal state transition occurred as specified, without revealing the internal state itself. This is a proof about a computation, not a proof about consciousness. (cycle_integrity)

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/Luminous-Dynamics/symthaea.git
cd symthaea

# Enter the pinned development shell
nix develop

# Build
cargo build --release

# Run tests (21K+ workspace-wide)
cargo nextest run --workspace --lib

# Run ZKP benchmarks
cd crates/mycelix-zkp-core && cargo test --features full --lib

# Run Binius HDC benchmark (needs .deps/binius64)
cd crates/hdc-zkp-bench && cargo run --release

# Try the Spore kernel in browser
open https://symthaea.luminousdynamics.io

Key Numbers

ZKP: Binary-Field STARKs vs Prime-Field (Same Scale, Both Measured)

XOR binding — the core HDC operation — requires zero non-linear constraints in Binius. Both numbers are real cryptographic proofs, not estimates.

ZKP Circuit Library

Cognitive Architecture

For Developers

Core crates:

Feature flags: 98 flags, default = minimal. Key flags: reasoning_engine, identity, neural-bridge, ssm_language. See FEATURE_FLAGS.md.

Contributing: See CONTRIBUTING.md. Start with docs/START_HERE.md.

For Researchers

Papers

Reproducibility

# Reproduce all ZKP benchmark results
cd papers/binius-hdc && bash reproduce.sh

# Run consciousness psych-bench
cargo run --features psych_bench --example run_all_benchmarks

Rust Workflow

Use the flake shell for day-to-day development:

cd symthaea
nix develop

Inside the shell:

# Fast, isolated test runner
cargo nextest run --workspace --lib

# Focused crate test run
cargo nextest run -p symthaea-core --lib

# Background compile/watch loop
bacon

# Narrow spike for EML/e-graph work
cargo test -p symthaea-eml-egraph

# Real-data conjecture quality dashboard
cargo run -p symthaea-core --example real_discovery_report --features abstract_thought

# Same dashboard, but exit non-zero when health thresholds are breached
cargo run -p symthaea-core --example real_discovery_report --features abstract_thought -- --strict

The symthaea-eml-egraph crate is an isolated egg prototype for equality saturation experiments around EML normalization. It is intentionally separate from production conjecture ranking and verification logic.

For discovery work, prefer real_discovery_report as the project-health baseline. It summarizes real observation families by verification rate, EML coverage, macro-candidate pressure, promoted operators, suspicious formulas, and runtime. Use --strict only for opt-in CI guardrails; the current default is a soft warning report.

psych-bench is an internal benchmark suite. For the honest per-module status of math and science capabilities (Lie theory, Langlands, thermodynamics, persistent homology, frontier physics, etc.), see MODULE_STATUS.md. External-benchmark results (miniF2F, PutnamBench, ARC-AGI-2) are planned for Phase 1.

Key Research Claims

• 256x constraint reduction for HDC XOR binding in binary-field STARKs (measured, same scale)
• Zero encryption overhead for federated learning (OTP + Binius share GF(2))
• 694 KB Binius verifier compiles to WASM (in-zome verification possible)
• 4/12 Butlin indicator probes survive an internal construct-validity re-check; only 1 has empirical support to date, explicitly scoped as internal causal-wiring evidence, not consciousness evidence
• 56.2% moral accuracy on Hendrycks Ethics (canonical re-run; an earlier 91.1% figure was retracted as leakage-inflated)

Architecture

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │         Symthaea Cognitive Loop       │
                    │  Perceive → Evolve → Measure → Act   │
                    │         (~31 Hz, 4-phase)            │
                    └──────────┬──────────────────┬────────┘
                               │                  │
                    ┌──────────▼──────┐  ┌────────▼────────┐
                    │  HDC Encoder    │  │  CfC Dynamics    │
                    │  16,384D binary │  │  Closed-form LTC │
                    │  + continuous   │  │  O(1) per step   │
                    └──────────┬──────┘  └────────┬────────┘
                               │                  │
                    ┌──────────▼──────────────────▼────────┐
                    │        DASTARK ZKP Layer              │
                    │  Binius (HDC) + Winterfell (range)    │
                    │  + RISC0 (complex) + Dilithium5 (PQ)  │
                    └──────────┬──────────────────┬────────┘
                               │                  │
                    ┌──────────▼──────┐  ┌────────▼────────┐
                    │ Mycelix (DHT)   │  │  Applications    │
                    │ 9 hApps on      │  │  Health, Identity│
                    │ Holochain       │  │  Finance, DeSci  │
                    └─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘

See full architecture diagrams in docs/architecture/.

Cryptographic Primitives Relevant to Regulated Domains

None of the following is a compliance certification. These are working cryptographic primitives that a compliant system in each domain would plausibly need — no accredited assessment, legal review, or regulatory audit has been performed on any of them.

If you are evaluating this for an actual regulated deployment, treat everything here as a research prototype and get your own legal/compliance review.

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later. Commercial licensing available — contact tristan.stoltz@evolvingresonantcocreationism.com.

Citation

@misc{stoltz2026biniushdc,
  title={Binary-Field STARKs for Hyperdimensional Computing},
  author={Stoltz, Tristan},
  year={2026},
  note={Available at github.com/Luminous-Dynamics/symthaea/papers/binius-hdc}
}